Dynamite Baits Marine Halibut groundbait marine red 900Kg UK POST ONLY
|
||||||||||||||||||
Find More Bait Products
5oz Sea ‘ Break Free; Leads 3 Per Pack!!
|
||||||||||||||||||
Related Sea Products
Impacts of Worldwide Illegal Fishing
Illegal fishing is a big problem facing the global fishing industry. A report1 by the ocean conservation group, Oceana2, released earlier this month, found that illegal, unregulated and unreported (IUU) fishing accounts for 20 percent (11 to 25 million metric tons of fish) of the global catch. IUU fishing contributes to economic losses of $10 to $23 billion, and threatens the 260 million global jobs that are dependent on marine fisheries.
Released during the 2013 Managing Our Nation s Fisheries Conference in Washington, D.C., the report calls IUU fishing a major threat to the oceans, consumers and seafood businesses around the world.
The sheer size of the problem of IUU fishing becomes clear when you look at some of the examples cited in the report:
- Three to four times more sharks are killed than official reports claim, as the shark fin trade in Hong Kong suggests, which yields $292 to $476 million in shark fin sales.
- Illegally caught Russian sockeye salmon is estimated to be 60 to 90 percent above report levels, which represents economic losses of $40 to $74 million.
- Illegal catches of Chilean sea bass are estimated to be 5 to 10 times greater than is officially reported.
- Half of the swordfish in Greece and cod in the UK are estimated to be illegally caught.
- Black market bluefin tuna may reach $4 billion annually, and the amount of illegally caught fish is estimated to be 5 to 10 times greater than the official catch.
- Illegal catches of skipjack, yellowfin and bigeye tunas are estimated to be $548 million a year.
Why is the amount of IUU fishing so much more than officials realize?
The main culprit, the report finds, is weak enforcement. There is both a lack of government oversight and insufficient regulation. One example clearly illustrates the lack of enforcement: Vessels that have been blacklisted for illegal fishing activities by international organizations are only intercepted at port 25 percent of the time.
Seafood traceability would deter illegal fishing.
Although the EU is currently implementing seafood traceability regulations, the U.S. has no traceability requirements for either domestic or imported seafood and there are few regulations for imports or catch documentation. The majority of U.S.
seafood imports are not inspected or labeled with basic information about when, where and how the fish was caught.
What are needed, according to the report, are centralized data and surveillance systems, online documents and advance notification of landings to allow inspectors to verify the catch. The report recommends that full traceability measures be implemented, plus global information systems need to be created and authorities need to cooperate with each other, particularly the U.S. government and member countries of regional fishery management organizations.
Illegal fishing cheats seafood consumers and hurts honest fishermen and businesses that play by the rules, said Oceana campaign director Beth Lowell3.
If we want to fight pirate fishing, we need to be able to track our seafood supply from boat to plate so we can keep illegally caught fish out of our markets and off of our dinner plates.
Congress introduced several bills addressing IUU fishing and seafood fraud, which include the Safety and Fraud Enforcement for Seafood (SAFE) Act, the International Fisheries Stewardship and Enforcement Act, and the Pirate Fishing Elimination Act.
The SAFE Act4 would ensure that seafood in the U.S.
is tracked from catch to plate.
Scroll down to see comments.
References
Study reveals how fishing gear can cause slow death of whales …
Illustration of how North Atlantic right whales get entangled in fishing gear. The gear hinders whales ability to eat and migrate, depletes their energy as they drag gear for months or years, and can result in a slow death. (Ilustration by Graphic Services, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution )
North Atlantic right whale Eg 3911, seen swimming entangled in fishing gear before entanglement response teams arrived. The teams suction-cupped a cell-phone sized device called a Dtag to study how fishing lines changed the whale’s diving and swimming behavior. (Photo courtesy of EcoHealth Alliance, under permit number 594-1759)
In a third attempt to cut away the fishing gear, a multiagency team applied a Dtag on Jan.
15, 2011 then administered a carefully calculated sedative with a dart gun. The becalmed whale allowed the team to approach and remove nearly all the fishing gear. (Photo courtesy of EcoHealth Alliance, under permit number 594-1759)
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 21, 2013
(508) 289-3340
Using a patient monitoring device attached to a whale entangled in fishing gear, scientists showed for the first time how fishing lines changed a whale s diving and swimming behavior. The monitoring revealed how fishing gear hinders whales ability to eat and migrate, depletes their energy as they drag gear for months or years, and can result in a slow death.
The scientists in this entanglement response suction-cupped a cellphone-size device called a Dtag to a two-year-old female North Atlantic right whale called Eg 3911.
The Dtag, developed at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), recorded Eg 3911 s movements before, during, and after at-sea disentanglement operations.
Immediately after Eg 3911 was disentangled from most of the fishing gear, she swam faster, dove twice as deep, and for longer periods. The study, by scientists at WHOI, the Georgia Department of Natural Resources, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, and NOAA Fisheries, was published online May 21 in the journal Marine Mammal Science.
The Dtag opened up a whole new world of Eg 3911 s life under water that otherwise we weren t able to see, said Julie van der Hoop, lead author of the study and a graduate student in the MIT/WHOI Joint Program in Oceanography.
North Atlantic right whales were nearly eradicated by whaling and remain endangered today, with a population of 450 to 500. About 75 percent bear scars of fishing lines that cut into their flesh.
Born in 2009, Eg 3911 was first sighted entangled and emaciated by an aerial survey team on Christmas Day 2010, near Jacksonville, Florida.
Fishing gear was entangled around her mouth, wrapped around both pectoral fins, and trailed about 100 feet behind her tail.
Teams aboard boats attempted to cut away the fishing gear on Dec.
29 and 30, 2010, but were not successful because the whale was evasive. A multiagency team tried again on Jan.
15, 2011. First, they applied a Dtag.
Then they administered a carefully calculated sedative with a dart gun developed for large whale drug delivery by Paxarms NZ in collaboration with Dr. Michael Moore, director of the Marine Mammal Center at WHOI and a marine mammal veterinarian. The becalmed whale allowed the team to approach and remove nearly all the fishing gear.
The Dtag measured 152 dives that Eg 3911 took over six hours.
There were no significant differences in depth or duration of dives after sedation, but the whale altered its behavior immediately following disentanglement, the scientists reported. The near-complete disentanglement of Eg 3911 resulted in significant increases in dive duration and depth.
Together, the effects of added buoyancy, added drag, and reduced swimming speed due to towing accessory gear pose many threats to entangled whales, the scientists wrote. Buoyant gear may overwhelm animals ability to descend to depths to forage on preferred prey.
Increased drag can reduce swimming speeds, delaying whales timely arrival to feeding or breeding grounds. Most significant, however, is the energy drain associated with added drag, they said.
To calculate that drain, the scientists, in a separate experiment, towed three types of fishing gear from a skiff, using tensiometers to measure the drag forces acting on Eg 3911. They then calculated how much more energy whales would require to compensate for the drag.
The results: Entangled whales have significantly higher energy demands, requiring 70 to 102 percent more power to swim at the same speed unentangled; or alternatively, they need to slow down their swimming speed by 16 to 20.5 percent.
The study provides the first data on the behavioral impacts of sedation and disentanglement and the energetic cost of entanglement in fishing gear due to drag.
On Feb.
1, 2011, an aerial survey observed Eg 3911 dead at sea.
She didn t make it, van der Hoop said. The whale was towed ashore for a necropsy. We showed up on the beach that night.
I remember walking out there and seeing this huge whale, or what I thought was huge. She was only 10 meters long. She was only two years old.
And all these people who had been involved in her life at some point, were there to learn from her what entanglement had caused.
The necropsy showed that effects of the chronic entanglement were the cause of death.
No fisherman wants to catch a whale, and I wish no fisherman a hungry day, said Moore. There needs to be a targeted assessment of how the fishery can still be profitable while deploying less gear so we can reduce the risk of marine mammals encountering fishing gear in the first place. At WHOI, we have hosted workshops talking with fisheries managers and fishermen about what might change so that they can continue to catch fish and stop catching whales.
A dedicated network of scientists, veterinarians, and emergency responders support the Marine Mammal Health and Stranding Response Program (MMHSRP), which was formally established under the Marine Mammal Protection Act, is coordinated by NOAA Fisheries Service and coordinates the Atlantic Large Whale Entanglement Response Program.
WHOI scientists have been long-standing contributors to the MMHSRP and routinely participate in rescues for marine mammals that are stranded, injured or entangled.
Response efforts by the network for endangered species, such as North Atlantic right whales, are authorized by NOAA/NMFS Permit No.
932-1905-MA-009526 issued to the MMHSRP.
The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution is a private, non-profit organization on Cape Cod, Mass., dedicated to marine research, engineering, and higher education.
Established in 1930 on a recommendation from the National Academy of Sciences, its primary mission is to understand the ocean and its interaction with the Earth as a whole, and to communicate a basic understanding of the ocean’s role in the changing global environment.
Originally published: May 21, 2013
J rgen Klopp rallies neutrals to support ‘special’ Borussia Dortmund
An hour after the first of J rgen Klopp’s many jokes, interspersed with his worldly insights into football and life, he returns to a more personal memory.
It is fitting and evocative because the tumultuous journey that Klopp and Borussia Dortmund have taken to the Champions League final at Wembley, where they play Bayern Munich on Saturday, has been this season’s most memorable story.
A passionate club’s exhilarating play and outrageous drama, painful transfer intrigue and riotous joy, validates Klopp’s claim that “this is the most interesting football project in the world”.
It was strangely similar for Klopp at Mainz, the first love of his sporting life.
Klopp, who eventually became their coach, used to be a lumbering striker-turned-defender in the German second division, and he suggests that: “Just like every person who works for Dortmund is a fan of the club, it was the same at Mainz.
When I was a player there we had 800 supporters on rainy Saturday afternoons and if we died no one would notice or come to our funeral.
But we loved the club and we have this same feeling at Dortmund.
It’s a very special club a workers’ club.” Klopp is canny enough to evoke these romantic roots when, speaking in English with real fervour, he says: “I left Mainz after 18 years and thought: ‘Next time I will work with a little less of my heart.’ I said that because we all cried for a week.
The city gave us a goodbye party and it lasted a week.
For a normal person that emotion is too much.
I thought it’s not healthy to work like this.
But after one week at Dortmund it was the same situation.
To find this twice, to be hit by good fortune, is very unusual.” Borussia Dortmund reeled from Champions League glory in 1997 to the brink of bankruptcy in 2005.
Transformed by Klopp’s arrival from Mainz almost five years ago, the ‘ 189m ( 160m) they generated in 2012 makes them the world’s 11th largest club.
Their imposing Westfalenstadion, dominated by the steep Yellow Wall terrace, rocks with 82,000 fans for every game.
But, compared to Bayern and Manchester United, Real Madrid and Barcelona, they remain Champions League romantics.
Their wage bill is half that of Bayern’s and a third of Madrid’s and yet, in their semi-final first leg, they swept aside the Spanish club 4-1.
Just days before that unforgettable match, the 20-year-old Mario G tze, their most gifted player who has been at Dortmund since the age of nine, decided to activate his ‘ 37m release clause and join Bayern this summer.
It’s the latest in a line of departures that threaten to tear the heart from Klopp’s young squad.
Robert Lewandowski, who scored all four goals against Real, will almost certainly leave probably also for Bayern, already strong enough to have obliterated Barcelona 7-0 in the other semi-final.
“What can I say?” Klopp says with his only shrug in a 90-minute interview at Puma’s office in Dortmund.
“If that’s what Bayern wants It’s like James Bond except they are the other guy the villain.” Klopp has previously compared Bayern to a remorseless superpower like China but he waves away that reminder.
“I was tired,” he smiles.
“Bayern want a decade of success like Bar a.
That’s OK if you have the money because it increases the possibility of success.
But it’s not guaranteed.
We are not a supermarket but they want our players because they know we cannot pay them the same money.
It could not be our way to do things like Real and Bayern and not think about taxes and let the next generation pick up our problems.
We need to work seriously and sensibly.
We have this amount of money so we can pay that amount.
But we lose players.
Last year it was Shinji Kagawa.” He hits his head with his palm.
“Shinji Kagawa is one of the best players in the world and he now plays 20 minutes at Manchester United on the left wing! My heart breaks.
Really, I have tears in my eyes.
Central midfield is Shinji’s best role.
He’s an offensive midfielder with one of the best noses for goal I ever saw.
But for most Japanese people it means more to play for Man United than Dortmund.
We cried for 20 minutes, in each others’ arms, when he left.
One year before that Nuri Sahin went because Real Madrid is the biggest club in the world.
Sahin is back at Dortmund after just four appearances for Madrid and an unhappy loan spell at Liverpool.
If players are patient enough we can develop the team into one of the biggest in the world.” When asked about the cruel loss of G tze, the 45-year-old is initially philosophical.
“It’s absolutely normal that people go different ways.
At 18 I wanted to see the whole world.
But I am only in Mainz and Dortmund since then and Klopp laughs it’s not the middle of the world.
It’s OK that they want to go to different places.
But they get there and, shit, it’s not the same.
Look, you work for the Guardian, and sometimes you see your colleagues and think: ‘Oh no, the same old thing every day.’ Maybe you want to go to the Sun? More money, less work.
More photographs, fewer words.” His laughter dies and he looks suddenly stricken when I ask about his shock after he heard G tze would be gone this summer.
“It was like a heart attack.
It was one day after M laga whom Dortmund beat with two desperately late goals in the quarter-final.
I had one day to celebrate and then somebody thought: ‘Enough, go back down on the floor.’ At our training ground Michael Zorc the general manager walked in like somebody had died.
He said: ‘I have to tell you something.
It’s possible that ‘” Klopp can’t bring himself to repeat the words.
“Michael asked if I wanted to talk and I said: ‘No, I have to go.’ That evening my wife was waiting because there’s a very good German actor, and a good friend, Wotan Wilke M hring, in a new film in Essen and we were invited to the premiere.
But I walked in and told her: ‘No chance.
I cannot speak.
It’s not possible to take me out tonight.’ There were all these calls from the club we should meet in a restaurant and speak.
I said: ‘No, I have to be on my own.’ Tomorrow I’ll be back in the race but not tonight.” Some Dortmund players were so affected they could not sleep after hearing G tze’s news.
“That’s the truth,” Klopp concedes.
“I called six or seven players who I knew were damaged in the heart.
They thought they were not good enough and they wanted to win together.
That’s the reason it hurt them so much.
But Bayern told Mario: ‘It’s now or never.’ I told him they will come next year.
They will come in two years, and then three years.
But he’s 20 and he thought: ‘I must go.’ I know how difficult it will be to find a player to replace G tze but, next year, we will play differently.
It just takes time.” His first coaching inspiration, Wolfgang Frank, managed Klopp for years at Mainz and they were fascinated by Arrigo Sacchi’s work at Milan.
“Even though we were in the second division we were the first German team to play 4-4-2 without a libero.
We watched this very boring video, 500 times, of Sacchi doing defensive drills, using sticks and without the ball, with Maldini, Baresi and Albertini.
We used to think before then that if the other players are better, you have to lose.
After that we learned anything is possible you can beat better teams by using tactics.” Klopp outwitted Jos Mourinho at the Signal Iduna Park.
Beyond the relentless pressing and devastatingly quick transitions that define Dortmund, Klopp found a way to blunt Xabi Alonso and, in turn, Cristiano Ronaldo.
The fact that Mourinho has since taken to phoning him regularly is another sign of Klopp’s place at the peak of European coaching.
But, besides tactical acumen, his ability to connect emotionally with his players is telling.
After he has praised Lionel Messi as “the most unbelievable player because there’s no weapon against him when he is fit no tactic will work”, Klopp offers a startling insight.
Rather than showing his team videos of Bar a at their best, for displays of tika-taka are scarcely relevant to Marco Reus, the hugely energetic standard-bearer of Dortmund’s lightning transitions, Klopp offers them photographs.
He highlights the way in which Messi and his team-mates celebrate every goal “like it’s the first they’ve ever scored.
It’s the perfect thing to show my team.
I do it very often.
I show them photographs of how Barcelona celebrate.
I don’t use videos because I don’t copy Bar a’s style.
But you see them celebrate goal number 5,868 like they’ve never scored before.
This is what you should always feel until you die.” Klopp has always been interested in ways of unifying his teams for, as he says: “You can speak about spirit or you can live it.” At Mainz, after he’d led the club to promotion in 2004, he settled on an unlikely pre-season trip.
“We took the team to a lake in Sweden where there was no electricity.
We went for five days without food.
They had to do this he whistles and, using an imaginary fishing rod, casts off.
The other coaches said: ‘Don’t you think it’s better to train playing football?’ No.
I wanted the team to feel that they can survive everything.
My assistant coach thinks I’m an idiot.
He asks if we can train there.
No.
Can we run there? No.
But we can swim and fish! “When I meet one of those players now, from our ‘Special Forces’, they tell me what happened in the first and last minute and every story in between.
Each night in a fucking tent, lying on the roots, you don’t forget that.
We had to find the next island.
The first one there had to make a fire and boil some water.
The whole time it was raining.
Only five hours it was not and then Klopp slaps his cheek a mosquito! How can they live in Sweden? You see the sun and he slaps his cheek again you feel mosquitos! But it was brilliant.
We were like Bravehearts.
You can stick a knife in me here no problem.
We went to the Bundesliga and people could not believe how strong we were.” He was soon known across Germany.
His incisive yet amusing work as a television pundit brought him a first flush of fame.
More importantly, his outstanding coaching impressed Bayern Munich.
“Uli Hoeness Bayern’s president asked if I would see him.
I said: ‘Yes sir I have to ask my mother first but I think it will be fine.’ He told me they were thinking of two coaches and I was one of them.
Later Hoeness decided on J rgen Klinsmann.
It wasn’t too disappointing for a second division manager to be called by Bayern is not the worst thing in the world.” Klopp was also approached by Hamburg.
In the end their hierarchy offered the job to Martin Jol because, unlike Klopp, he wore a suit when interviewed.
“I know why I didn’t get the job,” Klopp says.
“They came to my house but two out of three guys wanted me.
One of them was not sure.
I looked like this Klopp gestures at his unkempt appearance.
I’m sorry! “I read it in the newspaper that I’m not the right coach because of these reasons and, also, because my players called me Kloppo.
I don’t think it’s disrespectful.
At Mainz, when I started as a coach, the players were my team-mates.
The next day I’m their coach.
Must they start calling me ‘Sir’? Hamburg thought if someone called me Kloppo I can’t have their respect.
I phoned them and said: ‘I don’t want to go to Hamburg.
It’s not possible when you have so many doubts about my character.’” Hamburg must be cursing their fastidiousness.
Klopp, since then, has been linked to Chelsea, Manchester City, Manchester United and even Arsenal.
He still seems tightly bound to Dortmund but will this always be the case? “I don’t know.
In this moment I don’t think of anything else.
If I went to many clubs now and said: ‘Hello bring me offers’, maybe some would start running.
But I’m not interested because, for me, this is the most interesting football project in the world.
In three or four years, if someone wants me, we can speak.
But, for now, this is the best place for me.” Klopp comes from a small village in the Black Forest “There were 1,500 people there when I left and 1,499 live there now.” He is the father of two grown-up sons and his wife, Ulla, is a writer.
“She wrote a book for children,” Klopp says.
“It’s like Harry Potter but it’s about football.
There’s no Harry Potter flying on his fucking stick just football.” Yet even if Dortmund is not the centre of the universe, Klopp has produced a magical world of football rooted in his normality and good sense.
“I got more in life than I was ever supposed to get family, money, football.
None of my teachers, or my parents, ever believed this would happen to me.
So how can this perfect life of mine be spoilt because they take our players? It’s better if they stay but I’m not sure we’d be stronger.
You need change to make the next step in the team’s development.
If all these players had stayed I would have to go because there’d be nothing new.
If I say ‘Go left’, they would say: ‘You’ve told us that 200 times we don’t want to hear your voice any more.’ That’s life so you need new players.
It’s not an easy situation but I can handle it.
I am an absolutely normal guy but it’s not so difficult to find a moment to be their friend or, well, he grins teacher.” As he approaches the biggest game of his life, Klopp talks merrily of “a fairytale.” But he also points out calmly that, last season, Dortmund did the league-and-cup double over Bayern, as he predicted.
It was their second Bundesliga title in a row.
At the start of this season Klopp insisted Dortmund were ready to win the Champions League.
Bayern will be favourites but Dortmund have the support of most neutrals for it is difficult to resist such an exuberant team and their riveting coach.
“We are a club, not a company,” Klopp says, “but it depends on which kind of story the neutral fan wants to hear.
If he respects the story of Bayern, and how much they have won since the 1970s, he can support them.
But if he wants the new story, the special story, it must be Dortmund.
I think, in this moment in the football world, you have to be on our side.” J rgen Klopp is proud to wear PUMA who are also a partner of Borussia Dortmund
Greys Strata All Weather Wading Jacket
|
||||||||||||||||||
Find More Jacket Products
AquaStrong Flybox with 50 Different High Quality Fly Fishing Trout and Game Flies including Sedges, Hoppers, Daddies, Dry, Nymphs, Buzzers and Mays
|
||||||||||||||||||
Find More Fly Products
Fishing for fashion – Winnipeg Free Press
Why are car-loads of gal pals barrelling down Henderson Highway to Lockport? They’re not looking for fish, you can bet on that.
But their wheels are smokin’ and — here’s a hot clue — so are their credit cards.
They have two secret spots for big catches in mind — Eveline Street and Madison Lane boutiques — and they’ll spend hours at each of these places full of fashionista clothes, shoes and accessories “for real women.” Translation: “All sizes from small to multiple X.”
Who knew Lockport was a fashion mecca?
Eveline Street boutique
THE easiest spot to find is Eveline Street boutique, because you’ll practically run right into it when Henderson Highway ends. That’s address 23031 on No.
44 Hwy., which goes left over the bridge and the famous locks. Beside the huge Lockport Convenience and General Store, clinging to the right side is an old-fashioned white house with a veranda and weathered stick furniture. That’s the place.
Screech to a halt any day, noon to 5 p.m.
The main attraction at Eveline Street, aside from the colourful floor-to-ceiling stock, is a force of nature called Huda Haddad. She’s a dark-eyed, blond-haired fashion-forward kind of woman. She bounces around the shop, running back and forth throwing fun/glam clothing into cubicles for people, exhorting them to try things on — so un-Canadian-like.
Haddad quickly reveals she’s from the Middle East and immigrated to Canada when she was one-and-a-half. With six older siblings, little Huda soon learned how to survive in the pack — and how to get noticed.
“Everybody needs a passion. Every single day, everybody needs to find a reason to wag their tail,” says the 43-year-old entrepreneur.
Her passion is her clothing, shoes and accessories store. It’s famous for one-size-fits-all clothing — tons of it. And no, they’re not shapeless mumus.
It’s clothing made from merino wool that breathes and stretches to fit any size from zero to 4X.
Haddad says you can kiss goodbye to needing a set of fat clothes and skinny clothes, or different summer and winter clothes, as it’s porous and feels like soft, stretch cotton, not wool. The material wicks away perspiration. You stay cool in summer and warm in winter.
Best of all, you can trade clothes with any of your girlfriends — they will all fit.
“I have a customer who is a vet, and she was so excited we had clothing made from merino sheep wool.”
“I used to be a bra model,” Haddad bursts out, while pulling a sexy stretchable dress on for a photo shoot.
“I love my body at any size. I think I’m hot, and you should think you’re hot, too,” she yells out the neck-hole. “Of course, I come from a different culture where women are supposed to be curvy.”
Haddad says she only buys clothing that is manufactured in First-World collieries because she doesn’t want people labouring in sweatshops to make her clothes. “It costs me more, but for God’s sake it’s really better to know where things are being made.”
Some of her favourite brands for the store are April Cornell and Cut-Loose; she also has a big bookcase artfully packed with Crabtree and Evelyn products.
Her Fluevog display of shoes and boots hits you right in the face as you enter the store; some of the sexy heels look like ornate Victorian chair legs.
“My motto is ‘Come play dress-up.’ I never want anybody to feel pressure. I want them to feel comfortable in the store and in what they wear.
People drive out here and stay for hours. I just keep throwing stuff at them I think they’ll like in the change room. We have lots of fun.”
Madison Lane Boutique
LOOK to the right of the Half Moon hotdog emporium at 6860 Henderson Hwy., just before Lockport.
You’ll see racks of clothing blowing in the breeze. On inspection, they’re definitely not fishing clothes. This is a funky, high-quality fashion boutique that would put any city store to shame.
Why so close to the hotdogs? Owner Charlene McIntosh confesses, “That Half Moon guy next door is my husband, Wayne McIntosh.” She explains Madison Lane is a seasonal business, meaning she closes in the dead of winter and she and Wayne go gallivanting to warmer climes.
But, from March to Dec.
1, it’s going full throttle, seven days a week from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. “or later if there are are still customers in the store.” They have to make hay while the sun shines, she explains, and it’s been cold this year.
The first thing you notice is a sea of colours and sensual materials and a wall of to-die-for coloured purses, not to mention sparkling bling-bling up at the front counter.
And here’s the deal: “We don’t advertise much because we have so much word of mouth.” People come to the little shop from all over, and visitors to the Half Moon often wander in. The wives take one look and stage whisper across the shop: “I’ll be back when I don’t have my husband with me!”
The concept is people can shop there and look unique. “I only buy one piece in each size for each item. I have people who come here all the way from Brandon because they go to a lot of functions and don’t want to run into someone wearing the same thing.” Sizes are “for real women,” and are from small to 3X.”
“I opened this store out of a love for fashion.
I’m a chronic shopper by nature.” She encourages everyone working in the shop to model the clothes in the store when they’re working.
“I never sell anything I wouldn’t wear myself.”
That can sometimes mean staff are selling the clothes off their backs and the accessories off their necks, arms and feet! “Every day we’re walking billboards. I’ve had people buy my whole outfit and have had to transfer the stuff out of my purse to sell it.”
Jennifer Faubert, who works evenings at the store, says they sell brands such as Simon Chang, Alison Sheri, IDO, Hill Tribe and Piccadilly, which people love to see.
One of the biggest draws are shoes she buys exclusively from a man who brings them in from India.
“When I saw them, I said, ‘Oh my God, I have to have these!’ ” They are heels of only 1.5 to two inches, glitzy on top — often beaded — with a padded sole and rubber treads on the bottom.
This is hardly a backwoods business, though it’s surrounded by nature. McIntosh attends buying shows Toronto, Edmonton, Phoenix and Las Vegas for her shop in Lockport to make it world-class.
Lockport Convenience and General Store
DON’T leave town without stopping in at the giant Lockport Convenience and General Store.
Roxy and Mike Faires gave me the royal tour.
Half the store is a liquor mart, with giant bottles guarding the entrance to the department.
“This is the biggest liquor vendor in Manitoba — my father, Wayne Faires, spearheaded everything,” says Mike.
The rest of the store tells the story of Lockport and the needs of the fishermen who drive and/or fly in from all over Canada and the United States to fish for more than 20 species in the rushing river.
You can buy live bait and tackle right next door to swimming pool supplies for the pools at mansions on either side of the river.
Maureen Scurfield drove to Lockport twice in two days for no reason than she liked it so much the first time.
Recent Comments